


Things We Are Called

by Bluewolf458



Category: The Sentinel (TV)
Genre: Gen, Sentinel Thursday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-30
Updated: 2019-05-30
Packaged: 2020-03-29 22:12:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19028968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: Blair talks about all the names the police are given





	Things We Are Called

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Sentinel Thursday prompt 'copper'.  
> This is a total and absolute info-dump

Things We Are Called

by Bluewolf

"You know," Blair said thoughtfully as he and Jim drove back to the PD after checking out a crime scene. "There are so many synonyms for 'police' or 'policeman'. So many things we can be called. Sometimes it's a historical term, sometimes it depends on where in the world you live. Some words come from TV shows. Sometimes it depends on your... well social status. Sometimes they _are_ names - just sort-of insulting, like 'flatfoot', or outright pejorative, like 'pig' - or they could be semi-complimentary, like Cascade's 'finest', which is sometmes used sarcastically.

"It can describe what you are in the police force - a patrolman or woman, an officer, a detective, a narc... In Britain, a constable - basically that's their word for 'patrolman.'

"There are slang words too, some more slangy than others. A 'bluecoat' is descriptive, so is 'boys in blue' - I think that's Australian. Go back to Britain and you get 'peeler' or 'bobby' - both words are derived from Robert Peel, the man who started a police force in Britain in the 1820s - though I heard 'bobby' more often than 'peeler' when Naomi took me to Britain in early 1981. 'Course, that might just have been the area we were in.

"Some people call cops 'the heat'... Then there's the simple name 'cop', which is short for 'copper', though how that one originated - "

Jim sighed, momentarily wondering just what had triggered Blair's lecture. "Chief - does it matter? As Simon would say, that's altogether too much information."

He turned the truck into the PD garage, and parked.

Blair grinned as he got out of the truck. He waited for his partner, and then, side by side, they made their way to the elevator that would take them to Major Crime.

 


End file.
